The past weekend’s Rolex 24 hour race at Daytona concluded on Sunday afternoon with only a handful of cars dropping out of the race. But that didn’t mean there was no action in the pits to keep the 200 mph sports cars running throughout the event.

During the third caution of the night around the halfway point, a few DPi teams elected to take the time to make a brake change during their pit cycle. The overall leader and eventual winner No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac chose to replace their brakes as did the No. 31 Action Express Cadillac. This dropped them down the order, but with the race under caution, so very little time was lost.

Corvette Racing also made at least two brake changes that we were aware of, one of them was captured on the live TV coverage (which we don’t have at the moment). The team was racing the brand new mid-engine C8.R and had the complete brake assembly connected with quick disconnects. When the disconnect is released, it maintains the fluid and pressure in the line.

The cars are getting more technology but the brakes still can’t last 24 hours during a racing environment. Anything past nine hours and teams were electing to make brake changes. It is faster to change the whole assembly than to replace the pads.